Was the new type of party able to retain its members any better
than the old one?

Did the party change its foreign-language character by wiping out
the foreign-language federations?

To what extent did shop nuclei and fractions succeed in winning
over the American working class?

How many party members belonged to trade unions?

What was party life like for the rank and file? For the top and
middle leadership?

The answers to these questions should enable us to take stock of
the social make-up of American Communism in its first decade. There
are available enough facts and figures from official party sources
to do away with much of the obscurity that has surrounded this aspect
of the subject. But can these facts and figures be trusted? Several
factors must be considered. It should be remembered that it was in the
interest of every leadership to make the best possible showing in
the growth and composition of membership. Thus the official figures
represent the maximum rather than the minimum, and it is usually
safer to discount them than to exaggerate them. The continuous factional warfare must also be taken into consideration. It was not

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